City Joins Residents in Objecting to Airport Expansion

City of West Palm Beach Mayor Lois J. Frankel and the City Commission are joining area residents and nearby municipalities in fighting for the quality of life in West Palm Beach neighborhoods by encouraging the Federal Aviation Administration to re-evaluate and seek alternatives to the proposed expansion of Palm Beach International Airport.

“We appreciate the airport’s value to our City and our economy, but expanding it unnecessarily will create more noise, decrease air quality and impact property values for thousands of West Palm Beach residents,” said Mayor Frankel. “We’re proud to stand by our residents and make our voice heard.”

The City is taking issue with several of the major findings in a Federal Aviation Administration study of the proposed expansion. It is the City’s position that:

The expansion is unnecessary, as PBIA traffic has been steadily decreasing over the past few decades

The expansion would lower property values in the City’s south-end neighborhoods

The noise and pollution generated by additional planes would decrease the overall quality of life for neighbors

As most of the activity at PBIA is general aviation (private planes that do not carry commercial passenger traffic) the City believes that there are several strategies that would reduce aviation traffic and eliminate the need for any expansion. These include pricing and fee changes which would help the airport better manage demand and potentially shift general aviation activity to near-by airports.

The City of West Palm Beach is also being joined by Mar-a-Lago and the Town of Palm Beach in supporting alternatives to the airport expansion.